Our dividing fence was finally replaced at the end of November. We had tried to prop up the lose panels in various ways but we had a series of strong winds over the month that resulted in them disintegrating even further. Once the work had started, the chap who was doing the work for us said that the posts were still good apart from the parts that had rotted underground and suggested that we reuse them. The rotten pieces were sawn off and the posts placed in metal fence post spikes. They shouldn't rot so easily and the fence will be easier to maintain. Unfortunately, three of the panels were irredeemable and had to be replaced.

On the opposite side a series of frosts resulted in the end of the squash plants and the remaining runner beans. The brussels are doing well, though.

And the garlic finally arrived. Last year, I carefully labelled their positions with name of the variety but when I came to harvest them the labels had vanished! This year, as well as placing labels in the ground, I have kept a note of what has gone where.

A bonus crop of volunteer potatoes found whilst turning over the compost heap. There may be a few more lurking around the edges.

And finally for this some month, some reading matter for the dark winter evenings. The Minimalist Gardener by Patrick Whitefield is a collection of articles on permaculture and growing fruit and veg, including tips and advice for small urban gardens. See The Minimalist Gardener for further details.

Wednesday, 20 December 2017

I don't eat a lot of sweet preserves but do make some wild fruit jams (blackberry, elderberry and apple/crab apple is my favourite) and marmalade. The last time I made a traditional English orange marmalade was over 20 years ago. These days I use a mixture of citrus fruits combined - when in season - with wild fruits such as rose hip, rowan or hawthorn. This autumn I was given a large bag of quince so I experimented with a quince and citrus recipe.

For the citrus component I use up the saved, sliced peel from limes and lemons that have been stored in the icebox, plus the remains of lemons and limes that have been squeezed for various recipes (also stored in the ice box). It's such a mish mash that I can't give you an exact weight or number of fruit used, which I know is not at all helpful if you want to try this for yourself. I also usually buy a fresh lemon, lime and in this instance a red fleshed grapefruit that was on special offer. I peeled them, shredded the peel and squeezed the juice from them.

All of the peel and juice went into a pan, the pulps into a muslin bag and placed in the same pan. The whole thing was covered with about 1.5 litres of water and simmered until the peel was tender. This is the basic marmalade recipe.

Meanwhile, I peeled and cored 5 large quinces, chopped them up, added them to a separate pan with enough water to just cover them, and simmered until soft and mushy. Then I mashed them with a potato masher.

When the citrus peel was ready I did the usual squeezing of the muslin bag into the pan and dumped the contents of the bag onto the compost heap. I then added the quince pulp, mixed it all up and measured the volume. For every half litre I added the usual 450g sugar and then boiled until setting point. Hey Presto! Quince and citrus marmalade, and delicious.

P.S. The quince peelings and cores went into a large jar of water and fermented to make scrap vinegar.

The sweet chestnuts came from a tree next to The Church of Our Lady and St Anne in Caversham. It is a well established tree and there is always a good crop, although the quality of the chestnuts does vary from year to year. This year they were really plump and a great addition to stews and casseroles.

We gathered in the last of the tomatoes, some of which were still green but may ripen indoors. They are usually eaten before that happens, though, chopped and fried with a little garlic, onion salt and chilli. It was not the highest yielding year we've ever had but a good one and we did manage to avoid the blight that afflicted so many vegetable gardens and allotments in the area. The photo on the left is a sample of some of the varieties we grew this season.

A friend gave me a bag of quince from their garden. I poached some in a honey syrup along with some foraged apples and the rest I incorporated into marmalade (recipe to follow in a separate post).

We harvested the two monster squashes that were growing against our kitchen wall; they weighed in at just over 6lb each in weight. I found the label at the base of the plant and it said "Harlequin". I've been collecting seeds from our squashes for about three years and so far the harlequins have all been small to medium sized yellow/orange specimens (see the one on the right in the photo). I initially thought that there had been cross pollination to produce the green giant on the left but on checking my seed catalogues I see that Harlequin is an F1 hybrid. It's amazing that my collected seed generated so many "true" harlequins. Some of the green giant was made into chutney and the rest eaten over two weeks in risottos, curries and roasted veg recipes. Its twin is waiting to be eaten. We shall probably tackle it at the end of the year!

Our other main harvest was that of runner bean seeds. We have been growing runner beans and collecting our own seed for many years and have long forgotten what varieties they are/were. It doesn't really matter as they are well adapted to our garden conditions, are prolific and taste good. I may, though, try out one or two new "bought-in" varieties next year.

Some of the brassica and swiss chard seedlings have been planted out in areas that won't be trampled on when our storm-damaged, dividing fence is replaced (hopefully in November). They have all been covered with fleece, not to protect them from frost but to stop the pigeons getting at them! The brussel sprouts that you can see in the background are big enough to take care of themselves.

Tuesday, 19 December 2017

The autumn harvest started in earnest including an interesting range of varieties of squash and tomatoes.

Unknown variety of monster squash growing
against the kitchen wall

Black Krim tomatoes

Brown Turkey figs

Cherry Bomb chillis

The recent storms had already weakened two of the posts of the fence between us and one of our neighbours. Heavy winds overnight on September 12th/13th resulted in three of the panels coming down flattening the potatoes in the growing bags and seedlings in the adjacent ground. This is not going to be fixed for several weeks, which means we won't be able to plant out all of the winter and spring veg seedlings.

Typical autumn lunch! Pie from Reading Farmers' Market and veg from the garden

Sunday, 10 December 2017

Golden sweet mange tout. Very pretty mauve flowers, yellow pods and delicious but not very prolific. I'm not sure it's worth growing them again in any quantity.

Flowers and bulbils on Babington's leek. Nice garlicky flavour. I used some in cooking and kept some bulbils for growing on.

Monster purple sprouting broccoli. This beast stood at 3ft 6in. The others around it were a normal 2ft max and had long finished sprouting. This one had only just started. It lasted another month and would have probably gone on for at least another year had it not been so shallowly rooted. A few blustery winds and it started to keel over and eventually I had to remove it. But it died give us plenty of broccoli spears and leaves before its demise.

The start of our garlic harvest. I did label the three varieties that I planted but when it came to harvest the labels had disappeared! So I have no idea what is what. I'm not sure it really matters as I will use the cloves from the best specimens for replanting this autumn.

First of this year's cucumbers

Potatoes, Golden Sweet peas and first of the runner beans

Cherry plums

Grapes forming

Gorgeous colours on this monster that landed on a grapevine leaf. It was one inch long and buzzing loudly. I thought it was hornet of some sort but it is a hoverfly - the Hornet Mimic Hoverfly also known as the Belted Hoverfly, Volucella zonaria. Harmless.

Rudbeckia adding a splash of colour

Cinnabar moth caterpillars munching on ragwort.

The temperature may be in the 30s but Ms Moggychops has found a cool, shady spot in the garden